WASHINGTON — Days before they were due back at college, two friends on a midnight stroll across a train trestle in Ellicott City, Md., died in a freak accident in which a passing freight train derailed, dumping thousands of tons of coal down from the raised tracks.

The deaths of Elizabeth Nass and Rose Mayr, both 19, a few minutes after midnight Tuesday provided investigators with more questions than answers.

Why were they on a single-track rail bridge at the bottom of the town's quaint Main Street? Didn't they hear the approaching 90-car train that stretched for more than half a mile behind two locomotives? Were they struck by the train? Did they die under the avalanche of coal as more than 20 cars toppled on their side?

"These accidents happen very quickly," said Jim Southworth, lead investigator for the National Transportation Safety Board. "They don't take much time at all, but the investigations take a great deal of time."

Some of the mystery will be resolved by available evidence. Southworth will review video from a camera mounted on the lead engine and will interview the three-member train crew.

In statements taken by police, the crew members said they never saw the two women.

Just before they died, Nass posted to Twitter: "Drinking on top of the Ellicott City sign with (Rose)."

It is unclear whether the two women got up too late when they heard the train. But as the engines crossed the bridge, past the railroad station and near a sharp curve to the left, a brake line that connects each car to the next severed, and an automatic system began slamming on the brakes on each of the cars.

The cars began to derail to the left, spilling their coal. Some came to rest on their side, others tumbled from the bridge or down the embankments on either side.

Bucs offensive lineman Ali Marpet questioned the legality of the NFL's new policy that requires players to stand for the national anthem if they are on the field during the performance but gives them the option to remain in the locker room if t...

TAMPA — Disbelief will eventually give way to acceptance.The Lightning isn't there yet.It isn't there yet in a lot of ways.Will it ever be?Just wondering.Really, what guarantees are there?Late Wednesday night, Washington Capitals captain A...

TAMPA — Lightning fans were heading for the exits with three minutes remaining in Tampa Bay's 4-0 loss to Washington Wednesday in Game 7 of the Eastern Conference final. Understandable given the disappointment of not reaching the Stanley C...

TAMPA — Joe Capitano Sr. invested in the 1400 block of E Seventh Avenue in 1985, never doubting the huge potential of the property for Ybor City.But the deal to build a $52 million boutique hotel on the site didn’t start to come together six years ag...

Its American Athletic Conference tournament hopes flat-lining, USF's baseball team has spent the past 30 or so hours reviving itself with plain ol' CPR.Clutch Pitching and Resolve.Needing back-to-back wins on a humid Clearwater day to remain alive, t...

TAMPA — Tampa officials said Thursday they are reducing the speed limit on Bayshore Boulevard, one day after a mother was struck and killed by a speeding car while pushing her 21-month-old daughter across the city’s signature street.Starting Friday, ...

To almost no one's surprise, a last ditch effort to bring Florida lawmakers back to Tallahassee for another conversation about public education funding has failed.A group of House Democrats, led by Reps. Shevrin Jones and Nicholas Duran, used an...

As a fifth-grader, Aleesha Mance wrote an essay about her sister’s killer, explaining how peer pressure and drugs led the 17-year-old to make a deadly choice.
In high school, she searched for his name online. She read news articles about a tee...

It's no secret that Adam Putnam is a loyal NRA supporter and avid defender of gun rights. But we suspect aligning himself with a donor videotaped shooting two pet huskies multiple times at point blank range could be a bridge too far for most fir...